Maldives votes 18 months after 'coup' violence

Updated
Sat 7 Sep 2013, 11:25 PM AEST

Photo

A Maldivian voter casts her ballot at a polling station in Male on September 7, 2013.

AFP: Roberto Schmidt

Voters across the Maldives have turned out in large numbers to vote in an election that could see the country's first freely elected leader, Mohamed Nasheed, return to power 18 months after he was controversially ousted.

There were long queues before voting even started.

The poll is widely seen as a test for the young democracy, which held its first ever multi-party elections in 2008, ending three decades of one-party rule.

The pro-democracy campaigner, Mr Nasheed is one of four candidates contesting the election and says he is "fairly confident" he will win with an outright majority.

"We are very confident of winning it in a single round," Mr Nasheed said as he arrived to vote at a school.

He resigned in Feburary last year in what he described as a coup, saying he was forced to step down at gunpoint by police and army officers.